An archaic or dialectal word meaning 'only' or 'solely,' used in older English texts.
From Old English 'an' meaning 'one,' combined with '-ly' forming an adverb. Related to 'alone' and 'only,' it was gradually replaced by the more modern form 'only' as English standardized.
Anerly is basically the ancestor of 'only'—if you traveled back to Middle English, you'd hear people say 'that was anerly the beginning' instead of 'that was only the beginning,' and it sounds almost like a British accent intensified.
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